Kanaya Sukiyaki

The small town of Iga in Mie Prefecture is famous for its ninja museum which attracts legion of little ninjas and nostalgic foreigners. I was also promised a great sukiyaki and Kanaya meat shop was just what I needed after a visit to the ninja museum and Iga castle.

I like the idea of a meat shop serving meat. The entrance of the restaurant is on the right of the shop. The restaurant occupies the second floor of what turned out to be a massively long building.

The meat is not cheap and I warn you that Kanaya lunch menu is not cheap, it’s around 7000 yen per person.

Once you get to the second floor, we were taken to our private room.

The service at Kanaya is very important because the food is cooked table side.

The Iga beef is the star of the show and the portions are generous.

The supporting cast are great local vegetables

Like I said, the whole meal is made at the table.

Iga style sukiyaki is a bit different from the one I eat at home in Okayama.

First: sugar.

Second: soy sauce.

Third: lightly stir

Fourth: Eat after dipping in raw egg.

The result is a melt in your mouth beef like you will rarely eat.

The veggies were also delicious

After being cooked with sugar and soy sauce

The meal at Kanaya was a great experience which justified the high price.

The view from our room

The restaurant is really big, but don’t expect to eat there without a reservation.

If you visit Iga and you want to try the best of the best, you should go to Kanaya and enjoy local Iga products. Apparently, Iga offers a much better deal than Matsusaka which is almost double the price for a much smaller portion.